There are many social apps students use on their devices. As these apps can be fun to to connect and communicate with friends, there are a number of apps that are at risk because they enable communication with strangers. Young student’s vulnerabilities are at a higher risk when communicating with a stranger behind a screen. For these reasons, it is important that parents are aware of these apps in order to promote a safe and secure relationship with technology. Felicia Alvarez, a contributing writer for crosswalk.com identified the following apps as dangerous:

Whisper: This app allows one to post secrets anonymously and allows one to chat with others located in your geographical area.

Yik Yak: All Yik Yak users are anonymous. One can post comments accessible in a 1-5 mile radius. Comments can be untruthful, unkind and mean.

Kik: A free app-based alternative texting service allowing pictures to be sent without being logged into your phone history. Often in these situations, photographs are sent and shared with others without the subject’s permission.

Snapchat: This allows you to capture a picture or an image that will disappear after a short time. Again, it is very common that images are sent without the subject’s permission.

Vine: Allows users to watch and post six second videos. There are however inappropriate videos that pop into the feed, exposing your child to content that does not need to be seen.

ChatRoulette and Omegle: These apps allow you to video chat with strangers.

Poof: Hides other apps on your phone. You can select which apps you would like to hide and the icon will no longer show up on the screen.

With these apps in mind, it is important to connect with your child and get to know the apps that are being used on your child’s device. It may be time to establish family media rules such as having parental permission to download a new app and using devices in a common area in the home. Your child’s safety is more important than their privacy.